Quirkless Life: Japan

When you write and talk about My Hero Academia enough there appears that one person saying, “wouldn’t a quirkless person be the equivalent of a disabled person,” and to this question I always say no. For one thing quirks showed up two hundred years ago so they weren’t prevalent at the start of humanity and that’s why it was such a shock for people to be born with a quirk thus it was for a number of years it was abnormal to be born with a quirk, secondly a disability is a mental condition or physical impairment that stops a person from movements, senses or activities and as it stands under these specifications being quirkless is not considered a disability in this world, but that does bring up an interesting question on how would the quirkless be treated in the society of Japan. From school to working conditions what would their lives be like and because I love answering my own questions here is my take on how they would thrive or dive in this society. Mind you these are just observations and what I believe would happen and as time seems to have stagnated in terms of development from wages to school a lot of the same statistics would still apply as it is reflective of the current Japan just with quirks.

As having a quirk is the norm than not having a quirk would be considered abnormal. While the bullying Izuku received from Bakugo was a misconceived slight back when they were children but with the subsequent progression of bullying he received from the rest of the classroom from Pre-school to Middle School was because the lack of his quirk as that’s what the information presented to me told me, from this given evidence another individual without a quirk they would also face the same type of harassment inside the classroom. In Japan bullying is called ijime, most cases involve a big portion of a class inflicting insistent psychological (and occasionally physical) torment on a single victim. “Bullies in Japan are not rotten apples. It is a group phenomenon.”Students in Japan live a collective life where everyone should be the same and those who aren’t are told to conform to the norm but when a individual cannot conform because it is a part of there gentic makeup it’s an impossible task for and so many opt out of the system all together.

It has been common that this phomenon has caused sucides in the past. “According to Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science, and Technology (MEXT), in fiscal 2011 there were 27 reported suicides by boys and 12 by girls among junior high school students and 106 reported suicides by boys and 44 by girls among high school students. Statistics released by the National Police Agency, meanwhile, indicate that about 70% of all suicides between 1998 and 2010 were by males. While neither agency has specified bullying as among the causes for the suicides, it seems reasonable to conclude from the existing data that bullying-related suicides are also two to three times more prevalent among boys than among girls.” So we can assume in the future that the majority of all suicides in preteens would be quirkless with a few small outliers being a few quirked children, as we know from Kirishima’s middle school days we see a person being put in a precarious position where bully’s are trying to extort money from him. Though with Shinshou from was bullied as he had what was called a villians quirk by others.

From numerous articles I have read it does not seem ijime lasts into adulthood but I reckon a few who would be come hikomori’s (people who never leave there rooms) due to bullying they have faced as well as other pressures. As I mentioned before of not being able to conform to society’s norms. It is estimated that 541,000 people between the ages of 15 and 39 but does not include anyone over 40, this was a survey down in 2016 by the cabinet office. From La Brava’s introduction she was basically a hikomori and there would definitely would be hikomori’s with quirks for as we know social pressure can affect everyone. So we are looking at a good percentile for those without quirks to become shut ins but if these people can avoid this route or get over there syndrome and join the work force what would there prospects be?

With quirk regulations in this country it would actually be more appealing to have a quirkless person in the work place as they are a minority so you’ve got your diversity hire right there and you won’t have to worry about the persons quirk being set of by accident so less strucrial damage if they having an extremely volatile quirk. But because they are powerless in the terms of a quirk I imagine they would be treated rather poorly as others could just dump there work on them and if they went to school they would probably just put up with it or face the consequences and while some may fight back and eventually get them off their case or the bullying might not occur at all. But for a selection that do face these factors may either escape this through promotion or escape through marriage.

A quirkless person may be signed into a quirk marriage due to how having no quirk would effect there child if the father or mother only wanted the have their quirk and reduce the possibility that there quirk would possibly mutate, of course there are those outliers where quirks come out of no where just look at Eri. Otherwise they would be free to chooses who there partner is freely but we must assume there are some really old bigots out there who believe that quirks are evil and without one you are pure but I don’t see that foucsed on anywhere this is just pure conjecture. When a large group of people start losing power they make up belif’s to say I’m better than you, when a majorty becomes a minority or is in fear of losing power they create a belief system in their own minds to maintain the staus quo, as I have not seen or heard of these groups as this story is being told from Izuku’s point of view but I belive they would not be a very vocal minority in Japan preferring to keep to the shadows or at least have deluded themselves to the point that they don’t need to point out how superior they are to others because the belief is so certain they feel that people already know.

That leads to a person who is quirkless growing up from Izuku’s age or younger may not have the best time living in Japan, if you have any thoughts to add about the quirkless would most likely be treated in Japan or another country please put them in the comments below.